Wellcome Photography Prize judges
A panel of high-profile judges shortlist and choose the winners of the Wellcome Photography Prize.
Melanie Keen is Director of Wellcome Collection, and its vision is a world where everyone’s experience of health matters. Her intention is to give voice to radical imagination on what health is and what it could be.
She is committed to reshaping our cultural assumptions around race, disability and gender, and the human relationship to planetary health and health equity. A graduate of the RCA (Royal College of Art), Melanie has worked as a curator, as a senior manager in arts policy and funding at the Arts Council England. Prior to joining Wellcome Collection in 2019, she was Director and Chief Curator at pioneering arts organisation Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts).
She is an advisor at the Government Art Collection; on the Board of Visitors of Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; and a trustee of Raven Row gallery, London. She has served as a judge on several important panels and most recently, she was on the jury for the Turner Prize 2023, and also a judge for the Dezeen Awards 2024.
She speaks regularly at public events and in 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of the Arts London (UAL) for her contribution to curation and arts management.
- Chair - Melanie Keen, Director of Wellcome Collection
The story behind an image and the reasons why it was created are as important as the image itself. Our judges are looking for three things:
1. Creativity and visual impact
- Strong visual impact
- Thoughtful/considered composition
- Use of colour (or intentional lack thereof) to enhance impact
2. Storytelling
- Strong visual story that centres on a health issue
- Clear written narrative around health or medicine
3. Technical excellence
- Excellent image quality for the type of imaging technique used
- Appropriate and skilful image manipulation/editing if used
- High-resolution image and size suitable for print outputs
- Meets criteria in terms and conditions.